Covid-19: Gauteng Command Council provides update on Covid-19 response
Various MECs and heads of department provided an insight into the work they have done.
The Provincial Command Council, led by Premier David Makhura, provided an update of the Covid-19 pandemic in the province on 21 August.
MEC’s from various departments within the Gauteng Provincial Government outlined their various efforts. Gauteng co-operative governance MEC Lebogang Maile outlined the ward-based war room strategy. He said that the district development model aims to enhance service delivery and accelerate the implementation of local development projects.
Ward-based approach
He said that at the ward level, community workers are clustered according to the wards that they work in. He said that they have deployed 350 community development workers, 1 078 community health workers and about 30 000 other community workers.
“Ward-based war rooms comprise of ward councillors, supported by other elected public representatives… the ward-based war rooms provide oversight on service delivery in line with the six strategic pillars of their response to Covid-19.” These six pillars include the health response, economic response, law enforcement and compliance, food security, social mobilisation and state capacity and adaptability.
Maile explained that they have successfully implemented screening, tracking, tracing and testing in line with accepted protocols. They have also monitored compliance with informal traders and shopping malls and public transport facilities. He added that they have also inspected other public spaces such as schools and promoted a healthy lifestyle.
The head of department for the Gauteng Department of Education Edward Mosuwe said there has been a keen focus on food security and urban farming. He said that during levels 5, 4 and 3 of lockdown, they were able to distribute 485 000 food parcels to assist about two million families within the province.
Of the two million families that were assisted, 531 000 of them were in Johannesburg, 601 000 were in Tshwane, 397 000 were in Ekhuruleni, 334 000 were in Sedibeng and 311 000 in the West Rand.
“We are also happy to report that during the same period, we were able to establish 73 community food gardens and expand our food gardens to schools as well, with 62 food gardens at a school level.”
Update on schools reopening
Maile said all the grades that were permitted to go back to school have been able to return. Mosuwe explained that while the pandemic caused a disruption in the learning programme, they developed supplementary sites for Grade 12 learners to give them additional tutoring to compensate for the learning time they lost.
He said that from 24 August, the greatest number of learners will return to school since the lockdown began. “There are a number of things we had to look at. The number-one thing was ‘safety first’. Have we made sure that there are PPEs that have been delivered, have schools observed social distancing, there is mandatory screening as well.”
He said that 99 per cent of schools were able to open and 78 per cent of schools with children with special needs were able to open. Those that were unable to open were due to positive Coivd-19 cases. He said that the Grade 12 exams for this year will commence on 5 November and run until 15 December. Marking will begin on 4 January and the results will be released on 23 February.
Food security and social relief
Mosuwe added, “Through the interventions that the government made, we were able to get a total of 4 700 people who received counselling and psycho-social support during the lockdown. We were able to get to 5 900 older persons to be accommodated at old age homes and we accommodated 1 800 people with disabilities.”
He added that gender-based violence was a concern during the lockdown and they were able to help remove 414 victims who reported cases from their homes and accommodate them in shelters.
He said that now that the country is on Level 2, there are three key areas they have focused on. This includes the opening of early childhood development centre’s, sports, art and culture services and education continuity services.
Mosuwe said that they have visited each of the ECD sites to ensure that they comply with lockdown regulations. There are also protocols that need to be followed by sports centres.
Matilda Gasela, the head of the department for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the government has cleaned and disinfected 742 taxis and ranks and 18.6 million commuters were sanitised by 6 August. She added that 2 030 cadets were deployed to taxi ranks to monitor compliance and there were roadblocks at points of entry into the province.
She added that they have also monitored compliance within shopping centres, food stores, construction sites and the agricultural sector. She said that as more facilities open in Level 2, they are anticipating that there might be non-compliance and will be monitoring these facilities.
MEC for Community Safety Faith Mazibuko said that the Gauteng Provincial Government published a list of companies selected to provide goods and services and monthly reports will be published.
The health response
Acting MEC for Health Jacob Mamabolo said that Gauteng contributes 33 per cent of confirmed cases in the country, however, it also has the highest number of recoveries within the province. He said that there has been a significant decrease in the number of cases since the first peak.
He said that during the peak there were over 7 000 admissions to hospitals and this has decreased to about 3 000, the majority of which are in a stable condition. He highlighted that they are consistently monitoring stock of PPE so that they are able to actively intervene when the need arises.
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